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Another Metamorphosis

Life & Events > Elizabeth Fry, Prison Reformer.
 

Elizabeth Fry, Prison Reformer.

         Elizabeth Fry (nee Gurney) was born into a well-to-do Quaker family in Norwich on 21st May 1780 and died on this day in 1845.

          

  As a child she did not enjoy the Quaker meetings and made her delicate health an excuse for missing them.  Later Elizabeth became one of the Plain Friends whose religious observance was very strict: they dressed plainly and refused to join in with dancing and singing.

 

         Elizabeth married a banker, Joseph Fry, who was the partner in Gurney’s Bank.  She entertained as the wife of a wealthy businessman and helped him through financial crises, which drastically changed their lifestyle.  Elizabeth bore eleven children. 

          

         But it was her voluntary work in prisons that she is remembered for.

          

         A visiting fellow-Quaker showed her the conditions in which women prisoners were kept in London’s  Newgate prison.  Newgate was a prison which held both men and women awaiting trial, sentencing, execution, and transportation.  Elizabeth found women and children living and dying in conditions of horror, filth, and cruelty.  She resolved to do something about it. 

         Firstly, she visited the prisons and encouraged other middle class women to do so, overcoming official opposition and setting up education classes for women.  She was ahead of her time in the way she treated the prisoners as human beings.  Elizabeth did not impose discipline on them but instead proposed rules and invited the prisoners to vote on them, and she put an educated prisoner in charge.

         Secondly, Elizabeth told people in the outside world about prisons.  She used her connections in high places to good effect (despite her religious principles she enjoyed high society). 

         

         Both Florence Nightingale and the young Queen Victoria admired Elizabeth for her compassionate exercise outside the home.

         Elizabeth was the first penal reformer to devote her attention solely to the plight of imprisoned women. 

          

          Her ideals for penal reform were based on the precepts of the Society of Friends (Quakers).  Quakers emphasised personal, paternalistic means of correction, and their main instrument of reform was religion.  Although nineteenth century Quaker doctrine and practice did not allow women a complete role in religious activities, the doctrine of direct inspiration made it possible for women to become ministers. 

          

          Long before her work in prisons, Elizabeth had become a minister of considerable renown, noted for her "peculiar gift of exhortation." In 1797, Elizabeth wrote, "I love to feel for the sorrows of others."

          

         It is significant that the initial concerns of Elizabeth centred on the children and not the women prisoners.  She, unlike other early visitors, tended to concentrate on the behaviour of women rather than their moral corruptness.  Whatever her initial conceptions of the women were she soon began to see them in a different light.  In 1817, she wrote, "Already, from being like wild beasts, they appear harmless and kind."  From the initial focus on convict children, Elizabeth quickly sought to improve the physical conditions for the women.

          

         "We long to burn her alive," wrote the Reverend Sydney Smith in 1821 of Elizabeth, "Examples of living virtue disturb our repose and give birth to distressing comparisons."  When Elizabeth started her work she frightened many people with her frankness about a subject most would rather have left un-discovered. 

          

          As she progressed, the opposition to her dwindled.  The Lord Mayor of London even demanded a tour of Newgate Prison so that he could see the good work she was doing for himself.

          

         One of the first steps towards Elizabeth’s aims was the formation of the Association for the Improvement of the Females at Newgate. 

         The Association comprised Elizabeth, a clergyman’s wife, and eleven members of the Society of Friends.  The General Aims of the Association were,

         "to provide for the clothing, the instruction, and the employment of these females, to introduce them to knowledge of the holy scriptures, and to form in them as much as lies in our power, those habits of order, sobriety, and industry which may render them docile and perceptible whilst in prison, and respectable when they leave it."

posted on Oct 12, 2010 10:57 AM ()

Comments:

This is absolutely fascinating. She loved being empathetic but I find it
is not comfortable and the conditions she worked in were horrible. One of
my husbands ancestors was a bound girl. I can trace direct descent from
Richard Drake, Sir Francis brother and from Sir Nicholas Trammell who must
have sent a son to America to get rid of him as I understand that younger sons had little to look forward to. There are hundreds of Drake descendents and they have huge family reunions. I have often thought of
the hardships experienced in debtors prisons and aboard ship coming to
America at that time. Sue mentions the Elizabethan speech in Appalacha.
They also in an earlier time preserved old English ballads and during the
depression these were recorded by the government as a make work kind of
thing. It was very fortunate I think. I think the lure of free land
and vast acerages brought a lot of people who saved up their money to get
to America and some were Hugenots who fled France in the 1600's. We are
a nation of immigrants.
comment by elderjane on Oct 14, 2010 7:22 AM ()
WoW, that is an amazing lineage! It is also one to be very proud of
The voyages themselves, were tremendously hard going; let alone the upheaval when they stated to build a community from relative 'scratch'!
I wonder if, we would be able to do the same now? I very much doubt it. A tough breed, to be sure
reply by febreze on Oct 20, 2010 10:26 AM ()
By the 1870’s one-third of the population over 70 lived in the workhouse. There are many reasons why and mainly because people were too poor, sick or too old to support themselves. Reasons for this maybe unemployment, for example when Britain went through a stage during the early 1830s of economic depression, this had a huge effect on rural areas which was reducing the need for Agricultural labourers, due to mechanisation. Many unmarried pregnant women entered the workhouse as their only option when they were disowned by their families.
Once entering the workhouse it was like a small village kept hidden from the rest of the world. It had a school, a chapel, an infirmary and work yards that were segregated. Entering the workhouse, all paupers were stripped, bathed (under supervision), and then given a workhouse uniform. Their own clothes would be washed and disinfected and then put into store along with any other possessions which they only got returned to them once they had left the workhouse. The Workhouse was separated into seven sections and each person went into the section which was suited and under no ircumstances were families allowed to mix or even talk to each other.
The Seven Sections were separated according to the following :
1.Old or infirm men

2.Able bodied men, and youths above 13.

3.Youths and boys above seven years old and under 13.

4.Old or infirm women

5.Able-bodied women and girls above 16.

6.Girls above seven years old and under 16.

7.Children under 7 seven years of age.

The role of every pauper was to make sure that every person fulfilled their duties in their trades. Whether they were bone crushing, sewing, doing the laundry, at school or regulating coal supply, life was work and the only days they had off in the year was every Sunday, Good Friday and Christmas Day. Life got easier in the workhouse as time went on By 1930, when workhouses were officially abolished, conditions in some places had become much more relaxed.
The workhouses were not, limited to the towns - like London for instance - they were all over the country - including Wales, I cannot coment on Scotland or Ireland, I simply don't know - I expect there were.
If you were to read the 'parish records' of villages in Wales (going way, back in the centuries) you would be amazed at the stories to be found in them regarding different members of the village
There was a Workhouse 2 miles away from where I live. The original wall and (bricked up) arched entrance, with its name carved in the stone: 'Neath Workhouse'.
Elizabeth Fry did have her work carry on after her death with bigger more comfortable cells for the inmates.
comment by febreze on Oct 12, 2010 4:10 PM ()
That was really interesting, I had no idea how those places were operated. But one third of the population over 70--that is astonishing!! Enjoyed reading about it.
Some of my ancestors came over from Britain, but I figure they were shipped out to America to clear the workhouse or prison--they couldn't have afforded pay passage for sure. Or maybe they came to the USA as indentured servants. Anyway, they were kicked out for a reason (probably lawbreakers!) People who had any land or money or resources stayed in England, Wales, Ireland or Scotland--they wouldn't have wanted to ship out to unknown territory like the USA and start life over again if they had any reason to stay, so they must not have had anything.
(I once heard a linguist say that the hillbillies of the backwoods southern USA--and my family was one-- spoke a sort of Elizabethan English. Isn't that interesting?) Didn't mean to chat so long--that info was superior, thanks.
reply by susil on Oct 13, 2010 9:11 AM ()
I hope someone carried on her work after she died, she sounds like a Mother Teresa type of person. The conditions you describe sound like the horrible conditions in gaols and poor houses Charles Dickens wrote about. I've often wondered why royalty and Queen Victoria in particular seemed oblivious about what was going on with the poorest and most desperate of her subjects?
comment by susil on Oct 12, 2010 2:18 PM ()
The 'bookmark' is 'Victorian London' (not dictionary)
reply by febreze on Oct 13, 2010 2:02 PM ()
If you look through my 'bookmarks', you will come across one called: 'The Victorian Dictionary', click on it and you wll see a 'book', ckick on the MAP, section, then you wil see a list of dated and titled maps. Click on the: 1889 Charles Booth (poverty map). You will see two maps to chose from, by all means look at them both, however, map (2) gives a greater insigt into the poverty and the prosperity of the areas - above the colour coded map key, you will also see a couple of clickable links, they can tell you far more.
Ironically, it was the 'Whitechapel Murders' (Jack the Ripper), which gave rise to the destitution of this area around London. The cartographer Charles Booth (the maps of which you wil lbe loking at), was the person who made it known.
Throughout our history, there have been the 'haves and have nots' - it is a worldwide scenario
I am going to check up on the 'deportation' issue you mentioned. I am not sure about whether Britain did, deport to America (I know they did eventually deport to Australia).
I am wondering if, the people you spoke about (and the linguist), weren't the descendants of 'sailors' who may have been from 'Drakes' and his fellow Captains, crews . . . ? I will let you know what I find
reply by febreze on Oct 13, 2010 10:07 AM ()
Sorry, done it again! My reply has gone 'up' again /
reply by febreze on Oct 12, 2010 4:13 PM ()

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